Replies 72

Just to confirm what I suspected, turning on the bike only after unplugging from the power socket after a full charge will not turn on the red light. Tested this with the last three full charges, and in each test I left the bike on for a few minutes.

We found the reason - is just a bug in the charger firmware (does not affect anything in the charging / riding). Simply a code line refering to not existing variable. It happens only if you turn on the bike when the charger is still in the charging mode (plug connected).

We will fix this in the next revision of charger firmware. I hope you are enjoing bike after swapping the battery.

Good to hear you have completed the conversion. You can use the new version LiMn36s-2. There were small changes applied to protect the charger- limit max current to 12A (was 13A), limit max capacity to 65Ah etc. In regards of the fuel gauge going to zero - tell me more - in what situation does it happen?

Thanks Piotr. Downloaded new firmware. It might have cured the fuel gauge, but it need a little more testing. If it is OK now, I guess it had something to do with mounting pre-programmed mainboard. Anyway, bike is good without fuel gauge. What has been happening is: Fuel gauge fills up from empty during charge. But quite often all bars are gone next morning. Once I used Scooterdiag to set fuel gauge to 95 % before driving. - But then all bars disappeared at start of tour. (I have not done an exact measurement of capacity yet. It is set to 60 Ah. Range is more than 110 Km)The charger has "always" had an other issue: Sometimes, at start of charge it says "no out" and terminates. - Unplugging and new start will always work. - Not dependant of firmware.

first of all thank you to you and your team for the great job!! Is there a reason to limit to 65Ah? Another point it will be great to have a small explenation of the Firmware features. Like how to use cruise control and so on. Thank you!!

I'll post soon full description of the firmware features. The cruise control, hazardous lights, monitor mode (while driving) etc - all were implemented in ICM. In regards of Ah limit - this firmware was designed originally for Nissan Leaf conversion, and it is just another protection from overcharging the pack in case other protection failed (cell voltage, pack voltage). With our 80Ah and 100Ah Amita packs we provide charger firmware limited to higher capacity. If somebody is interested to get firmware for other capacity or configuration (for example 37S, 38S) - please contact us.

You are right - it is a simple ampere freeze. We have designed it for service purpose (to watch LowCell / HighCell at constant load while riding) not for Interstate cruising. It's possible to introduce also constant speed - not on our priority list yet though.

About real cruise... I bought it from another source, who also works on Vectrix firmwares. After installing it and once on the road, I discovered that after activating it I couldn't accelerate above the setted speed! To my understanding, this is not a real cruise control so I complained about it's operation. In reply I was told that I should first deactivate it - break! - and then accelerate...

Piotr,

I hope that, although not a priority, when you launch a real cruise control, it will be a REAL cruise control.

Hello Piotr. As to the dissappearing fuel gauge: I am not sure what happened to the range indicator. I think it was unreliable, both high and low values. Most of the time battery indicated less than half, or empty. - So I did just look at voltage and Kms. Believe it is OK now, but havent used it much. -Still cold.

hello Johan, I think that you have a problem in your Motor Controler board, perhaps that you have connect your battery without currant limiter and now you have burn one little fuse in your Motor controller. Piotr can confirm.

Hi, Piotr, and Armand. Yesterday I drove 35 Km with new firmware, and everything seem to be fine. Four bars dissappeared in steep terrain. Estimated range seem to be realistic, but I need some more time to judge. - Guess it is most reliable when driving flat.As to MC: I did that fault some years ago, but on a weak NIMH battery. My impression is that gauge is controlled from charger, but I guess MC has to "empty" the gauge when driving. (?)

Battery Fuel Gauge is controlled by charger (if its present, if it fails display shows battery voltage read by MC, so goes fast up and down while riding). Charger displays all bars when charging completed and then reduce one bar per 5.55% of battery capacity based on the real and actual consumption measured by MC.

Charger doesn't have any build in algorithm for calculating the real battery capacity and it refers to value set by firmware or user (via dashboard). We are working on next generation of BMS which will calculate on every charge/discharge cycle a usable capacity of the pack and update this value in the charger eprom, but right now if you set a wrong capacity or do not update it, the gauge and range estimation will show wrong info.

I m sorry for the first incomplete message. I converted my Vectrix VX-1 Li 30 Ah to a 36P36S 18650 li-ion pack. The pack is running fine, but before i hit the road i need a BMS.

I already have the 4 x BMS boards from my former Li 30Ah pack. Do i need a full Universal BMS or can it be done only by ordering a new BMS case and BMS adaptor + wire harness and use the existing BMS boards?

Hello Piotr, I own a Li+ 2012 Vx1, upgraded to Nissan Leaf batteries. The "fuel gauge" gets stuck in "full bars" while "est range" is "0". Vectrix Diagnostic GUI shows "red N/A" on the "charger firmware version" field (BMS, MC and ICM firmwares version appears ok). Actually the charger (Runke Gold 2.1) is properly working. Furthermore the combinations of brake levers/throttle/dashboard buttons
(to activate other menus) are not working as well. Should I reinstall
the "charger firmware"? Or should I reset the charger (by
unplugging/replugging it)? Thanks. Regards.

Hello, actually the charger does work: battery gets correctly charged ("EQ 049" code at the end of charge). I am using the scooter every day without problems. Instead the "fuel gauge" is frozen at "full bars" while the "estimated range" is set to "0". I will check according to your hint. Thanks. Kind regards

Hi , i just installed your kit amita in my Vectrix battery Li + but I have some problems, after connecting the batteries, and install the update, BD1 battery cell 9 ranged in voltage between 3.7 V and 4,1v, getting a battery faliure in the bike , then as bms my version was not the R54 then decided to install that version, now the voltages of the cells appear correctly but now I get an error in temperature and no longer even let me go 2mts with moto.another doubt is that the two connectors carrying the old batteries for temperature and voltage data, I'm just using one,the longest of the two.Is it correct , or need some kind of adapter?.I think ,it is neccesary program again the BMS unit with the origininal version fron maker .

In the Dash you can see Hi is 3.85
and low is 3.65 but it is not real. In scootdiag Hi and low are 3.85🤔. It takes a long time to update on the
Dash, about 20 seconds. I have a video and .cel recorded at same time where you can see it. I have send to Anna

In the .cel of the scootdiag record not low of 3.75. They are all between
3.85-3.75

I just completed a swap from NiMh to 18 Leaf modules (no BMS) in my 07 VX-1. I charged the pack to 146v, and took it for a test drive. The bike seemed like it was in limp mode, no power, 20mph top speed, with the motor controller squealing and bucking, with no regen braking. I used a light bulb to precharge the controller, so I don't believe that I caused any damage. Should I flash the controller and charger, to see if this fixes the problem, or do you suspect other issues? I have CANBUS cable a diag installed, and it works, just do not want to break anything.

I wrote it many times here already - please be aware that using Leaf packs (and any othoer Li-ion) without bms is very dangarouse - you may easly either overdischarge some cells (destoying its capacity) or overcharge some of them - this can finish with fire and your battery and bike will be lost. Saving 500EUR now on the BMS will sonner or later cause the loss of battery pack at best.

Anyhow - if you decide to do it, on your risk - you need different firmware on MC. Oryginal NiMH firmware will detect to high voltage - no regen, and because of missing temperature sensors (if you unplugged them) can show some problems in riding as well.

If you uploaded the Li firmware to MC - it is trying to get the message from BMS which you don't have as I understand - so the speed and power is limited.

So - please either buy a BMS kit in our shop - http://shop.vectrixparts.com/vx1-bms-board.html and you will get completly different expirience (120km speed, precise range estimation, rear wheel spinning controll etc), or search forum like vis for voltage for a firmware package made by laird or dugas to be used without BMS.

If you decide to search vis for voltage - check also pictures / videos of completly burnt scooters, sometimes garages when people use Li batteries without BMS.

I figured that besides adding 2 more cells, only bms and charger firmware need to be changed to meet the higher voltage. Maybe controller too? Currently i’m running with a bms on cell level, each cell is monitored individually without communication to the canbus. Will upgrade to the latest factory bms as soon as possible, but first want to complete my battery setup.

Without a firmware update my runke 2.1 will never charge the pack high enough. Need to get it to around 156V in a 38s setup.

Maybe it is possible to send a single command to the charger using the cmd-tap in the diag app.

I have a problem with the bms. After 6000 km I have a bad reading at cell voltage. Max cell voltage, 4,50V (in the reality, on the vectrix diag, all cells was good, around 4,05V). So I had a ideea to upload the new bms firmware, for 36S Amita and Nissan Leaf cell, but It won't work. I have a new vectrix with a big panasonic battery. Now the scooter wont work at all.

Following the bricking of my motor controller during update to the latest firmware, I took contact by mail with your services and sent the unit to the factory for low level reprogramming according to the very quick and efficient answer I received. Problem is: nobody is answering my mails and I cannot get an update on the topic... I have events foreseen soon with the (beloved) bike and I really need my controller back! Kzysztof, any way you could check that??

NB: I only found out to late, reading online forums, that the controller was very susceptible to bricking during update... Maybe put a warning on this page would be useful? :-D

I sent you an e-mail on Thursday that you MC is programmed already, but has serious problem with encoder calibration process and we will contact with you as soon as we menage (or not) to overcome this issue.

Yep, I saw indeed ! Thanks a lot. Crossing fingers. That machine was riding beautifully and I miss it!

Being an electromechanical engineer building electric motorcycles myself as a side job, I'm 100% sure the board was handled properly and all electrical connections properly and safely inspected and tested during the battery swap process (plus in the middle of upgrading the 4 firmwares, before the MC one failed, I had a perfect display of all my cells voltages and temperatures in the diagnostic software)

Do you have any idea of what may have happened to mess up the encoder readout circuit, being hardware or firmware/software related??

Hello, I would like to buy new bms board, my batteries system is composed with 36 cells, how many board I have to buy? 3 (with your description, 1 board can read 12 cells) or 4 to be compatible with can bus or other ? The connector j24 and j25 are welded on the board or I have to buy too? And how the software is integrated in the board ? Thanks Clement

Hi, what is the version of the ICM firmware that disables the absorption control
of the power lines of the lamps to avoid having always the flashing lights to indicate a malfunction?
Where can I find it?
My vectrix mounts your Nissan Leaf kit.
Thank you!
Greetings.